This is a perfect drink for a cool Fall evening – especially with the bourbon and the tabasco sauce in it.
This is a shooter – so served in a long shot glass. Naturally, one has to pace the consumption properly.
I thought the name was appropriate given that Halloween is approaching us….
Bourbon, lime juice, sugar syrup and a couple of drops of tabasco sauce.
Last night, Sharmila and I went out with a local Bengali couple – Soumya and Tumpa – for a couple of drinks. Not exactly being the party animal myself, I rarely get to see the local Bengali families other than occasions like Durga Puja and such. And my guess is that I have seen Soumya and Tumpa exactly twice every year – during Durga Puja and during Saraswati Puja and exchanged pleasantries. This Puja, we had agreed to meet up some time and go out.
It was a great evening. Unfortunately, I do not have any picture to post – which is a break away from tradition 🙂 Anyways, during our conversation, as is my wont, I was able to establish a very unique intersection point. Let me see if I can reconstruct the threads.
Thread 1: Nearly seven to eight decades back when the British broke up India by religious lines before they left, there was a huge upheaval of violence between the two primary religions in that area: India, Pakistan and East Pakistan – which eventually became independent and is now known as Bangladesh. There were innumerable families that lost their homes and were uprooted from their country and had to take shelter in another country. I count many of their descendants as my friends and family today.
In any case, one such family moved from Jessore in Bangladesh and eventually settled in Bahrampur in West Bengal (India). Many years later, the lady of the house and her son – who was probably about 10-15 years old then – got into some legal dispute with the tenants in their house. That young son was none other than Soumya’s dad. Anyways, to seek legal help, they went to a well known lawyer in that town. The mom-son duo approached this aforementioned lawyer gentleman in his residence to seek help. This was circa 1950.
In a complete aside, the same lawyer had a nephew (younger brother’s son) who also lived in the same house. Now, hang on to that nephew for a second as I finish up the second thread.
Thread 2. As you know I grew up in a small sleepy town called Durgapur during my early childhood. Incidentally, there is a Mr. Ashoke Dubey from Durgapur who always takes me to task for calling Durgapur “sleepy” 🙂 In any case, his daughter – Aditi and I were classmates from very very early age and we have remained great friends till this day. And her dad – Mr. Dubey – was my local hero. He was one gentleman that I could always rely on to give me some unbiased advice. He was one of the top executives in Durgapur, but he would always find time for me if I needed to discuss something with him – even after I had long left Durgapur. Till this day, I try to meet him once a year when he comes to US or when I go to India.
Last night, after Soumya started talking about Gorabazar area in Bahrampur, something told me that we might have an intersection point here. A few calls to India and Soumya this morning later, it was established that Mr. Dubey is that same little nephew from the first thread!!!!!!
And get this – in 1985, Aditi, myself and a few of our common friends had gone to visit Mr. Dubey’s original home for a couple of days. YEP! It was the same house that Soumya’s grandma had gone to in 1950!!!
Who knew that I will be having drinks with somebody in 2014 whose grandma and I were at the same spot – separated by 35 years!! And we would find that out another 30 years later??
Serendipity!!!
Growing up in India as kids, Tintin was our evergreen comic hero. And there was his friend – Captain Haddock who had a sumptuous appetite for a particular scotch whisky called Loch Lomond!!! The dog Snowy was not above swiping a few licks here and there either!!
Way after the comics, there was a real life brand Loch Lomond scotch whisky that came of being.
This one however is a cocktail with the same name. Sure it has scotch whisky, but it also has blue curaçao, peach schnapps, lemon juice and cranberry juice.
I can visualize Captain Haddock sipping my cocktail and then upon realizing it has fruit juices in it, spitting it out forcefully with that inimitably “PFFFFFFT” fashion 😉
Growing up in India as kids, Tintin was our evergreen comic hero. And there was his friend – Captain Haddock who had a sumptuous appetite for a particular scotch whisky called Loch Lomond!!! The dog Snowy was not above swiping a few licks here and there either!!
Way after the comics, there was a real life brand Loch Lomond scotch whisky that came of being.
This one however is a cocktail with the same name. Sure it has scotch whisky, but it also has blue curaçao, peach schnapps, lemon juice and cranberry juice.
I can visualize Captain Haddock sipping my cocktail and then upon realizing it has fruit juices in it, spitting it out forcefully with that inimitably “PFFFFFFT” fashion 😉
This has been morphed and modified multiple times over the decades. It is part of the qawwali “Yeh jo halka halka” made memorable by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s rendition
“Main ne un ke saamne awwal ka khanjar rakh diya
Phir kaleja rakh diya,
Dil rakh diya,
Sar rakh diya,
Aur arz kiya ke:
Ab mere baad kisko sataaogey?
Mujhe kis tarha se mitaaogey?
Kahan jaa ke teer chalaaogey?
Meri dosti ki balaayen lo
Mujhe haath utha kar duaaein do
Ke tumhein ek kaatil bana diya”
Very rough translation:
In front of her, I first laid down the dagger
Then I laid down my heart
Then my soul
Finally I laid down my head
And asked:
Now, who are you going to torture after me?
How are you going to take me out of your life?
Where will you go to aim your arrows of glances?
Someday you will value my friendship
And lift your arms in thankfulness
That because of me you became the most charming killer.
(the last line might be alternatively interpreted to refer to her killer instincts)
Don’t feel too bad. I had none either. Here, I was – frantically looking for a place to settle down in Alexandria with a friend that I have admired a lot and only got to see him after 22 years. Obviously, I did not have any patience for too many things as I looked for a Old Town spot by the water to settle down in. But Jamey, not only caught my attention, he took my breath away.
So, here was this senior gentleman that would seemingly have spread out his table with all sorts of wine and shot glasses on his table. Given my interest in anything remotely connected to a OH molecule, I was intrigued. “Is he selling wine glasses”? I asked myself. “Why does he have all those glasses half filled with water then?”. I was surprised enough that I told my friend – “Let’s go check out”.
What I saw was unbelievable. What Jamey – the senior gentleman – was doing was this – by pulling his finger along the edge of the glasses, he was creating a musical note. This is how it works – he cleaned his fingers with soap and then dipped them in distilled water to take out as much oil from the finger ridges as he could. Then as his finger ridges traveled over the edge of the glass, it created a vibration (think about taking a serrated saw over a glass edge) and produced a sound. But then, the frequency of the note was produced by resonance from the water surface – and therefore by carefully calibrating how much water he poured in it, he modified the note in those zillions of glasses he had. It is called a Glass Harp!!!
You think that is crazy? Try this … He asked me where was I from? I said Atlanta. He asked me where I was born? I said India. And he proceeded to play “Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram” for the next five minutes! My jaw dropped!
What talent! What an amazing experience for me!!!
You know what amazes me the most? He puts on his tie everyday he comes to the street corner to play!! Talk of passion!!!
[Epilogue – he told me he has a CD on Amazon and is working on a DVD. I googled him – “Jamey Turner” – up and he was all over Youtube. If you are ever in Alexandria, look him up. If you feel so inclined, buy his CD and write him a note. I know I will.]
